Commercial.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 42, 7 February 1890, Page 19

Commercial.

Mb. DOKALD Steonach (on behalf of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited) reports for the week ending February 5, as follows :—

Store Cattle. — Down to tbe present moment the market has been adversely affected by the very low prices ruling for fat etock. The demand is not improving, and to effect sales very much lower prices than those lately asked would have to be accepted. The season is now bo far advanced, and feed drying up, very little business is likely to be transacted till after harvest, when, no doubt, supplies will be required for winter feeding.

Store Sheep.— There is a good deal of inquiry experienced in connection with these, quite a number of purchasers are quietly feeling the market. Full lißts are now presented, and no doubt an increased business will result. At the moment, however, buyers are reticent, being under the impression th*t later on their supplies may be had at lower figures. In the meantime the demand is mostly for young sheep of both sexes, crossbred and merino, chiefly the former. Wool. — Since our last week's report we are advised by cable of the opening of the first series of colonial wool sales in London for 1890 wben there was a large attendance of both home and foreign buyers. Competition was animated but the selection was poor which will no doubt account for the change in buyers favour more particularly with regard to merino. On Saturday we record the following telegram from our London office : — Greasy merino had declined £d, scoured Id since the close of last sales. For crossbreds the market is firmer, but there is much irregularity in bidding. Our fonrth sale for this season will be held on Thursday the 6th, when we expect the usual compliment of buyers to be in attendance and considering the tone of the Home market we see no reason why prices ruling at the previous sales especially for all light, shifty, well-grown wools, should not be fally maintained. On Monday we offered a long catalogue of fadges and bags of fleece pieces, and locks, bidding was very brisk and every lot disposed of at prices fully equal to any obtained earlier.

Sheepskins.— At our regular weekly auction on Tuesday we submitted a miscellaneous catalogue, chiefly country dry skina, but including a number of town butchers' green pelts and lambskins. There was a good attendance of the trade, all the buyers being present, and competed fairly active for all sorts, everj lot on the catalogue being disposed of at fully equal to rates ruling last week. Country dry crossbreds, low to medium, brought Is 3d to 3s lid ; do do merino, Is 2d to 3a 7d ; medium to full-woolled crosbreds, 4s Id to 6s 9d ; do merino, 3i 10 to 5s 91 ; dry pelts, 3d to Is Id ; green crossbred pelts, fit for mat-making, 2s 3d, 2s 2d, 2s Id, 2s ; others. Is lid Is lOd, Is 9d, Is 7d, Is 6i, Is si, Is 3d, Is 2i ; green lambskins, 3s 3d, 2s 93, 2s Bd, 2s 6d, 2s 3d, 2s, Is lid, Is 9d, Is Bd, Is 7d, Is sd.

Babbitskms.— lt is very satisfactory to note that the first sales for this year opened well in London on the 31st ult. Private telegrams to hand report h rise of Id per lb. on best descriptions. Fair ordinary to good also advanced l^d per lb. Locally, business is restricted to small and inferior lines only, and we have no sales now of any consequence to note, but there aie always buyers for shipment for any lots coming forward. Hides. Local requirements absorb all coming forward, so that there is but little room for shippers to do much business. The market is unaltered, prices remaining about the Bame as those current during the past few months, \iz., for best extra heavy weights, 2fd to 31; medium to heavy, 2{d to 2£d ; light, 2d to 2{ X ; inferior, l£d to l^i per lb. . . Xallow. There is no alteration to report. Prices remain the same as last week's quotations. A fair demand exists, and consignments coming forward are taken up by local buyers, and readily placed unless reserves are prohibitive. We quote inferior and mixed, 133 to 15s ; medium to good, 16a to 18s ; best rendered mutton, ltfs to 203 ; rough fat, best muttou, 11s to 12s 6d ; inferior to medium, 9s to lOspercwt. . . Grain.— Wheat : Tbe past week has been quite as quiet as the preceding one. Inquiries are small, and then only for extra prime small parcels at reduced rates. Medium milling qualities are offering more plentifully, with but little demand. Fowl wheat (whole) is also very plentiful, and a gocd deal easier in prica. We quote prime milling, Tuscan, 2s 103 to 3s ; best red straw and velvet, J 2s 8d to 2s lOd ; medinm to good, nominal, 23 5d to 2s 6d • inferior to medium, 2s to 2s 5d (ex store). Oats : The market for these is exceedingly flat, going from bad to worse, aud prices daily becoming weaker, and consignments, with the quantity still in store, and with the daily arrivals, it would appear as if the bottom was not yet reached. There seems to be no demand for shipment, the purchases now being made are mostly for local consumption; a few odd lots are occasionally taken up to hold. At public auction this week several lotß were dieoosed of, small rttail parcels reaching up to Is (3i, while ordinary parcels of good feed to prime milling ranged from Is 3£d to Is 5d (sacks extra, ex store).— Bailey : There wa* no demand wnatever at auction this week for small parcels offered, and tbe lot had to be passed in unsold. Quotations nominal. Grass Seed. — The market does not show much annimation. There are buyers of ryegrass seed, whether machine dress or undressed, but there is no improvement in price. We quote dressed 33 to 3s 6d ; undressed Is 3i to 2d 6d ; sacks extra. Cocksfoot baa no demand up to the prpsent worth noticing, quotations nominal. Potatoes.— The market for these has lately been in favour of k buyers, aod the continuences the same, the supply exceeds the detnand r resulting in a dregging market at auction this week, kidneys sold at 22s 6d to 57s 6d per ton. Chaff.— The supply this week has been in excess of requirements, sales, in consequence are difficult to affect at last week's rates. We now quote, best screened oaten sheaf, heavy, £2 17s 6d to £3 ; inferior to medium and good, 20a to 50s per ton.

Dairy Produce.— There is no new feature in the position of the market to chronicle, the tone of which continues exceedingly fiat. There is no business of any consequence transpiring. We quote, butter, nominal, 5d to 6d ; factory cheese, large, 4d to 4£d ; small, 5d ; dairy made, 3d to 4d per lb.

Messes. Donald Reid and Co., Dunedin, report for week ending February 4 as follows :—: —

As usual, we held an auction sale of grain and produce at our stores, on Monday last. There was a full attendance of dealers and others interested, but there was an absence of competition, and prices all round ruled considerably lower.

Barley, especially, is a drug in the market. Our catalogue ncludei a few lines of malting, for absolute sale, but brewers seemed in no disposition to purchase, and there were practically no offtrs.

Oats — The export trade has ceased completely for the present, and as the local consumption is not large, prices hare receded. We quote — Prime, Is ssd to Is 6^-d ; medium, Is 4d to Is sd, sacks extra. Wheat. — Prime milling is in Bbort supply and meets with (food request, but inferior and medium samples are hard to quit at anything above fowl's wheat prices. We quote — Milling, 2s 7d to 3s ; fowl's wheat, 2s 2d to 2s 6d.

Barley. — Vendors are now, as a rale, anxious to quit, and eTery effort has been made daring the week to effect sales, bat there ii actually no demand.

Potatoes. — The market is glutted, and prices have fallen considerably. We quote, prime £2 10s to £3 ; medium, £1 10s to £2.

Chaff. — There has been a large supply forward daring the week, the greater part being new season's cutting. We quote, prime, £2 IBs to £3 ; medium, £2 to £2 10s.

Mb. F. Meenan. King street, reports : — Wholesale prices, bags included : Oats, Is 4d to Is Bd, dull. Wheat : milling (dull), 5s to 3s 3d ; fowls', 2s 6d to 2s 9d. Chaff : Full supply, bulk inferior, £2 10s to £3 10a, according to quality. Hay : Oaten, £3 10s ; ryegrass, £3 5s (both dull). Bran, £2 10s. Pollard, £3 10s. Potatoes, old, unsaleable ; new, £2 10* to £3 os. Flour : Sacks, £8 ; fifties, £8 15s; roller, sacks, £8 10s ; 501 b., £9 ss. Oatmeal, £9 10s. Butter from 5d to Bd. Eggs, Is. Salt butter, nominal, 6d to6d.

Chauncey Depew says that £100,000,000 of English capital has gone into the Argentine Republic within the last few years. A vast amount has also been sent into Chili and Honduras.

A number of coffers, containing 30.000 gold and silver Spanish pieces of the year 1666, hare been brought out of the sea near the isknd of Andros. Six bronze cannon were found near the coffers, so it is supposed that the whole came from the wreck of a Spanish man-of-war.

The Empress Frederick has made a donation of £400 to the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Golden Square, London. This sum has been realised by the sale of the book entitled •• Frederick, C^own Prince and Emperor," written for the Empress by Mr. Rodd, to which the Empress herself wrote an introduction.

A daring robbery has seen committed on the Atchison, Topeka , and Santa Fe Railway. Fifteen masked men boarded a train at midnight while travelling through Indian territory, and succeeded in seizing between 20,000 and 30,000 dols. in the express car, and escaping with their booty. About twenty shots were exchanged between the robbers and the guard and messenger of the car before the latter yielded.

A new organ on a large scale is approaching completion at the Cathedral of St. Peter's, Rome. It ia Btated that a wish has been expressed by the Pope that Gounod, who is perhaps the greatest living composer of Churcn music, should write something for the occasion, and the author of " Faust " has accordingly undertaken to contribute a new Mfsse Solennelle, to be sung by a vast choral body of some three or four thousand performers. — Pall Mall Gazette.

M. Jules Ferry, the author of the famous " Clause Seven," by which the Religious Orders were expelled from France in 1880, honoured the Cistercian Monastery of Lerins near Cannes, with a visit on All Paints' Day. He was conducted over the house by a laybrother, and found the place very interesting. Before departing he contributed towards the support of the establishment the munificent sum of sixty-five centimes — six-pence halfpeny ! Such open-handed generosity is worthy of record.

When the Cathedral bell at Braganza, the ancient residence of the Portuguese Royal family, wa& tolling for the death of Queen Maria 11., mother of the late King Luiz 1., in 1853, it cracked. In 1861, when the Castle ensign was hoisted half-mast high at Braganea on the occasion of the death of King Pedro V., brother of the late King, it was torn to pieces immediately by the storm. At the death of King Luiz 1., last month the Cathedral bell again cracked, and the Castle ensign was again torn to shreds by the wind.

Irish ecclesiastical sculpture is again beginning to flourish, and the beautiful ancient Irish crosses, many of which are still in Ireland, are now being copied in limestone and marble. A very fine Celtic cross has just been erected by Mr. Burns, of Brook Green, London, on the grave of his wife in Kensal Green Cemetery. The material is limestone marble, found at Bally dannell, in the County TipDerary, Mr. E. O'Shea, of Callao near Kilkenny, being the designor and sculptor of this splendid piece of Irish workmanship. So great has been the emigration of Italians to the United States during recent years that the Propaganda has established two missions for their especial behoof, one at New Orleans, the other at Cincinnati. On the 20th November, seven priests of the Institute of Christopher Columbus and several catechists started for the new missions. Previous to their departure a touching service took place at the Church of San Baimondo, Piacenza, which was attended by a large number of the clergy and laity. The Bishop solemnly blessed the crosses, and delivered one to each of the missionaries, after an eloquent and affecting discourse. This is another proof of the tender care which the Church has of her children in every part of the world.